END OF THIRD WEEK

Yesterday a group of the Center Theatre folk came and watched a run-through in the rehearsal room. Michael Ritchie, artistic director of the Center Theatre Group was there and had some very nice and generous comments to make. Whew!

I have been finding it hard to keep the lines in my head. I’m not just talking about dialogue changes but the lines I said two years ago for 5 months. It has occurred to me that it may be because I am used to saying them to a theatre filled with people–in the play my character talks to the audience a lot–and am subconsciously thrown by the fact that we are in a rehearsal studio, and I deliver lines to the wall. Put it this way: I am counting on the fact that my challenges are due to this physical space.

BUT, I swear, I am playing my character slightly differently. More like a scholar and with less outwardness, less emotion. It feels right. And you know what? This idea came to me from a comment someone sent in on my blog. It was an intelligently written comment about the difference between academics and ” regular people.” it also melds with where Moises has been steering me.

I tried my wigs on this morning cause they needed to see if they are still okay. It felt as though I was being reunited with old friends. I LOVE my wigs!

I have begun moving stuff into my dressing room and will truly settle in on Sunday. Can’t wait.

To totally change the subject, Want to say something about American Idol. I mentioned in a blog or maybe a tweet how gorgeous Jennifer Lopez looks. But I have to add that the most precise and, in my humble opinion, astute musical comments are made by her. I was happy about that. Richard and I watched again last night and enjoyed it. Wonder if the day will come when the vote won’t be unanimous. It’ll probably be Stephan Tyler who initiates that, he doesn’t seem so concerned about ruffling feathers.

Share This Post
17 Comments

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention END OF THIRD WEEK | Jane Fonda -- Topsy.com

  2. Hello Jane,
    Sounds like your on the road to a great start on the run of 33″. I was viewing the CNN live cast today of the wake of SARGENT SHRIVER. The event was very moving ,did bring back some thing seeing Senator George McGovern talk about Sargent Shriver was like history coming alive again. He was some great man in many ways, as late Eunice Kennedy. Was reading a acting quote “Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.”
    – Rosalind Russell. Your not in a production of Hair, that could be good or bad it has to do with the audience maybe or maybe not. Someone one told me the audience is not important. But the group of spectators at a public event; listeners or viewers collectively, as in attendance at a theater or concert: The audience are respectful of art ,whatever art is . Art is the expression of the self, you can’t go wrong.
    with love and care

  3. Jane-

    That is so very cool that you listened to a bloggers advice- on your academia role.

    This is just one of the many reasons people love you so.

    Jan x

  4. Dear jane~i remember this comment too written by a fellow friend on your blog a wk or two ago. I resinated with it too. I worked both at MIT – where academics live totally in their heads – and at the Graduate Sch of Music @ Harvard. At Harv, it was a snobbish intellengcia, academic elite. And no matter how I tried, I cld never once get them to “crack” a smile nor laugh at any humour. I think you’re on the right track albeit very different then the way the rest of us “ordinary folk” live. xox m&lb

  5. PS: there was also a strident confidence, look upon people as less than human at Harv. No one was quite as worthy, entitled as the profs who lord over the univ. There was also an underhanded competiveness while also a vulnerability. They too were only as good as their “last paper or book or research project or amt of $$$ funding rec’d.” Very very competitive world, acadenics. xox m&lb

  6. Im SOOO dissapointed I missed seeing you when you were on Broadway!!!! I could kick myself for never getting around to getting tickets. Im such a HUGE admirer of you and your work and everything about you 😉 I live on the shoreline of Connecticut (actually, the town next to where Katharine Hepburn resided in Old Saybrook)when she was alive I would see her around town, also had been to her house for a garage sale, ran into her at the dentist one time as well! Have you heard about “The Kate” (The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center), the new theatre that was made in honor of Ms Hepburn right here in her town. http://www.katharinehepburntheater.org

    Danielle

  7. Hi Jane, I’m flying into LA tomorrow on business and after seeing you in the play in NYC was hoping to catch it when I was out there. Sadly, you don’t open until after I’m gone. I wanted to make a trip to the theater though to take some pictures and see if I might catch a glimpse of you and say hello. Break legs and good luck with moving in!

  8. Jane,

    I loved when you posted that comment on a previous posting. I too admire you for being open to ideas and not simply brushing them aside. I do follow blogs of some other famous people – I won’t mention names because I know that is not your style – and they never listen because they are an expert in their fields. Again, I think that’s why so many of us follow you and enjoy your positive energy. The county needs more of this. The lines will come as you continue to wake up your character from her two year hibernation.

    Chad

  9. Hi Jane. I am writing from Uruguay. Talking about JLo., on Monday showcased the film you act with her. Kisses from Uruguay. Someday you should visit my country. It’s beautiful!

  10. Definitely on the right track.

    I worked at Smith College in their Info Tech department…my boss had a Masters in Computer Science, and was close to being done with her own Ph.D. — but she worked like me as “service personnel”. I half expected my systems support work to be minimized in importance by the professors, but I could not believe how some of the professors constantly talked down to my brilliant and well-educated boss like she was chattel. (This is SMITH COLLEGE.)

    Here’s what I learned about professors at elite colleges: the more accomplished, the more published, the more groundbreaking, the more intelligent, the more singular the niche = the more indispensable they are to the reputation of the college. And with that, niceties and politeness are not required of them. The same rules for everyone else do not apply. And, they live in a virtual bubble of this allowed narcissism.

    Best of luck in mining this territory!

  11. Jane, re the memorization work, am wondering if our aging brains are something like computers. We can get ‘overloaded’ and then ‘crash’??..Sometimes just unplugging the TV, or computer or even refrigerator (my thermostat acted up), counting to ten before replugging… solves the problem!!! Good luck Jane. xo

  12. You continue to inspire on so many levels. Reading this blog about your new play makes me stop to ponder – “I could, too . . . ?!” Age be damned?

    Mid-50’s fearing failure, fearing even trying, a producer who is not producing, a writer who’s not writing, a finished script waiting for magical courage . . . why stick our skinny necks out from our turtle-thick shells? Scary out there – in the real world of rejection. Ageism, sexism, fearism . . .

    And then here you are, not only sticking your neck out but your entire being. Growing, challenging, facing the fear. Bravo. Keep inspiring us – we women (and assume many men) sincerely need it! Inspiration, all too precious in this world of ours.

  13. Academics have many roles too. Research can abstract one a bit from reality, but teaching is very engaging, and it is necessary to be extroverted and confident in this. Now many teachers come off as arrogant, but the best ones are humble at the same time, and relate as regular people, but never vulgar, always setting a good example with intellectual curiosity, and promoting the self-educating outlook, and respecting the intellectual potential in everyone, and offering positive encouragement. Many people look down on academia the and Ph.D. in the US etc. of course…looking only at success and money…so promoting genuine intellectual values is a great thing!

  14. Thank you for sharing this journey with us “regular folkes” ha! I like that you are so accomplished,yet still so excited,as if it’s all brand new! You are a treasure! Would love to see photos of your dressing room…a little vicarious living here! Heheee! Warm Wishes AlwaysXoxox

  15. Hope to see you in Barcelona!
    Best wishes.

  16. I have done a little community theater, I sing and am a soloist at (Catholic) church (in front of the assembly to the side of the altar) and always have felt insecure -even in a panic – at rehearsals. But never when in front of an audience or assembly. Something overcomes me, I let go and let God, and the magic happens and I am no longer myself. And I am always told how wonderfully I did. May you find this subtle energy enter the vacuum that is you when you perform, and may you always speak/emote the lines as you envision the character you are playing should/would. Be possessed by your character as the casting and directing has dreamed you would be, and let yourself be a conduit of the energy of this role as you dream you should be. Wow them and thrill them and above all, entertain them! Take your audience out of the here and now of their lives, and into the world of your character and your play. Lead them to another here and now, that will haunt them even after the last curtain call. Transport them, and leave such a lasting impression that they may revisit and relive the world you took them to, every time it surfaces in their minds.

    How I wish I could see you on stage! I missed you in New York, out of my own lack of follow-through, but I pray that you be marvelous and magical even though I will never see you in this play — unless it comes back to NYC??? (am in NJ).

    Votre admiratrice dévouée,
    Katherine

Leave a Reply